


The Mouse and the Mantis

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [72]
Category: Jacksepticeye Fandom, Markiplier fandom - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Magic, Secret Identity, card tricks, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24294331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Chase has been making a new friend, which everyone thinks is a pretty good idea since Chase needs more personal friends. Unfortunately that friend is Damien, and Chase isn’t known for his good decision
Series: Masks and Maladies [72]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	The Mouse and the Mantis

In the Mayor’s office, Chase and the Mayor were talking. Chase had slowly been making a habit of coming over to check on the Mayor but these days he’d made a habit of lingering in his office just to talk. Sometimes the visits lasted for five minutes, other times they carried on for about a half-hour.

Their topic of conversation had moved to Chase’s weapons. Since Chase dealt more with civilians than he did with dangerous supervillains, Damien had been curious about how he conducted his superhero work against much more vulnerable and human civilians.

Damien was looking at one of Chase’s rifles while he sat at his desk, it was a modified NERF gun. He turned it over in his hands for examination, “It’s made of plastic.”

“Yeah,” Chase rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t wanna kill people. Jackie helped me turn it inta somethin’ that fires more than foam. It’s gotten a couple upgrades an’ replacements over the years.”

“I always thought you were just modifying your weapons in a basement,” Damien commented. “I suppose I was partially correct.”

“Well, yah know, ye can get older but yah don’t have ta grow up,” Chase chuckled.

Damien let a little laughing sigh, “I suppose. Egoton never has been a safe place for people like you, hopefully it can be like that again.”

“Least people aren’t as afraid ‘a the League as they used ta be, so there’s that,” Chase shrugged. “I know Althone’s gotten safer.”

“I hope so,” Damien passed the gun back, the NERF rifle was now covertly missing one of its hard rubber rounds.

“Yah ever shoot a gun b’fore?” Chase asked curiously, attaching it to his back.

“When I was a child my father would take my sister and I hunting,” Damien answered, glancing back at Chase. “I never took to it, didn’t like the noise much. Celine, however, was a natural.”

“Really?” Chase asked.

“Oh yeah,” Damien chuckled. “If our father hadn’t been such a controlling, old fashioned asshole, I would have been written out of his will entirely.”

“That’s rough,” Chase commented uncomfortably. “Bet that makes reunions awkward.”

“Besides my sister I don’t see any of my family anymore,” Damien commented, his tone curt and a bit aggressive.

“Uh, so,” Chase faltered, sensing he was trending on uncomfortable territory, and trying to change the subject. “Can yah do any magic?”

“Parlour tricks really,” Damien waived his head dismissively. “Nothing really big or impressive.”

“Like card tricks?” Chase gasped, clearly excited. “I love those.”

“I’m a little rusty,” Damien shrugged. Dark reached into his bottom drawer, ripping open a small hole in the Void and pulled out a deck of cards from the Manor’s game closet. He quickly closed the tear again before Chase could even lean up to look over the top of the desk.

Damien shut the drawer with his leg as he adjusted his chair. Tossing the deck over to Chase, Damien asked, “Check if it’s a full deck, my boyfriend may have gotten his hands on it and cards always disappear when he shuffles.”

“How’s he doin’?” Chase asked, checking the deck.

“Eccentric as always,” Damien groaned. “He tried to use the oven to make toast, which might have gone well if he hadn’t walked away and let it turn into a blob of charcoal.”

“Yikes,” Chase coughed, his hands stalled while he was shuffling the deck. “So yeh the one who cooks then?”

“I would, except I have no sense of taste, so I don’t know what tastes good or not, I mostly go by texture.”

“That sucks, when did that happen?” Chase passed the deck back. “Yer missing the Jokers.”

“I’ll just add my boyfriend’s pictures to the deck,” Damien jokes. “That should be enough.”

Chase chuckled, hopping his chair closer to the desk, “So show me some card tricks, come on, Marv says they’re not really magic but I think that’s because he can’t do them.”

“Well don’t expect anything big, like I said, I’m rusty,” Damien warned.

Chase was almost leaned onto the desk, his knees brushing the side of the desk he was facing. “It’s better than anything I could do.”

Damien gave a small smile, “Well there’s two types of card tricks, the kind without magic that anyone can learn.”

He shook the deck, and the queen of spades became the ace of diamonds once he tapped it on the desk. “And then there are the tricks that require a bit more delicacy.”

“Wow,” Chase gasped and reached out to take the card. He turned it over. “That’s cool.”

Damien shuffled the deck, taking the ace back and dealing five cards to Chase. “Alright, Average, look at your cards, pick one and then shuffle them back in the deck.”

Chase did as he was asked, then passed the deck back to Damien. The Mayor paused, running his thumb along a side of the deck before turning the whole deck over and tossing it onto the desk. Every single card had been turned into the three of hearts.

Damien cocked his eyebrow and Chase’s eyes got huge. “Why does Marv hate these, that was amazing?”

“Like I said, Celine was always better at magic, what I can do is limited card tricks, anyone could learn these,” Damien dismisses.

“Could yah teach me?” Chase pleaded.

Damien looked over to his desk calendar, “Well . . . I get out a little earlier on Sundays. You could swing by the office every night for a half-hour and I can see what I can do. Mayhaps then?”

“I would love ta,” Chase jumped up excitedly, missing the small, sharp smirk on Damien’s mouth, pulling out his phone. “Maybe . . . Shite! I’m late.”

“Oh, I’m sorry if I kept you,” Damien apologized, checking his own watch.

“Nah, I came in distracting you first, see yah on Wednesday,” Chase stood up. “Have a nice day, best of luck with the boyfriend.”

“Stay safe out there, Average,” Damien said. “It’s a dark, scary world out there.”

Chase stayed still with his hand on the door, his teeth pulling at his chapped lips. “Brody.”

“What?” Every part of Dark froze, he’d known Chase’s real name for almost five years now, but didn’t think the hero would be so foolish as to just say it out loud to someone who Chase had just met barely a year ago. The only reason he’d never done anything with it was because Anti had beaten him to that option long ago.

Chase Brody the person was self destructive, burning more bridges than Dark could believe. Making poor choices in his personal life that astounded Dark, but as a hero . . . Well Damien was impressed.

“It’s Chase Brody,” Chase admitted. “I figured since I’ll be comin’ over a lot and yah’ve been workin’ super hard with the Coalition that if I could trust anyone it’d be  _ you _ .”

“I’ll protect it with my life,” Damien promised, not feeling guilty in the slightest.  _ You idiot! _

“I’ll get out of yer hair,” Chase said. “See yah Sunday.”

“See you around,” Dark promised.

Chase left and Dark was able to hold Damien’s form for a couple more minutes before it broke back into Dark. On either side of the Entity was a blue and a red perfect replica of himself. Dark and the red echo looked over at the blue copy. He was looking at the door with a happy smile.

“You got lucky he’s a complete idiot,” Dark told him. “If this turns out to be a waste of time, I’m holding you responsible.”

The blue echo shot Dark a glare, emotions bouncing between the three of them.

“Vulgar bastard,” Dark scoffed at the blue echo, dissipating the two of them. “Do your job for once.”

Dark drew a deep breath and pulling some of the power from the Void into himself, Dark turned back into Damien and rolled his shoulders, trying to look like he was still human and not the humming amalgamation he usually was.

Getting back to work, Dark felt a sense of pride as he worked through whatever inane rambling the city was trying to focus on.


End file.
